Elemental Earth

AX.GAN.08.04 - Elemental Earth

Lore

The Dura'Kai did not learn to use earth. They were shaped by it over generations of service to entities that moved through geological time, beings for whom a human lifetime was the span of a breath, for whom patience was not a virtue but a condition of existing at all. The Dura'Kai came out of that service different. Their element did not give them speed or fire or the rushing clarity of water. It gave them weight.

Elemental Earth in the Dura'Kai tradition is not projection. It is not energy sent outward. It is the practitioner extending their will into material that already exists and asking it to do what stone already knows how to do, hold, resist, endure, and occasionally, with enough time, transform. The tradition formalizes this relationship into three deliberate practices, but it does not invent anything. The stone already knew.

The three Expressions of Elemental Earth correspond to what stone does:

Shape, earth reshaped; material moved, fractured, raised, and restructured. The stone made into something new.
Hold, earth as permanence; stability imposed, barriers reinforced, ground locked. The stone made into something unmovable.
Read, earth as memory; geological history accessed, structural knowledge extracted, material located. The stone made into something that speaks.

Most practitioners develop one Expression deeply and use the others situationally. Stoneholders who develop elemental practice almost universally favor Hold; it deepens what they already do. Craftworkers and engineers favor Shape for the architectural applications. Lodgekeepers and scouts favor Read for the knowledge it provides. All three Expressions draw on the same Odd Talent pool.

The Earth tradition does not give practitioners speed. There is no Earth analog of a fire bolt crossing a room in a heartbeat. What it gives is permanence: a wall the practitioner raises today is still there tomorrow. Ground the practitioner fractures stays fractured. A structure the practitioner reinforces remains reinforced when the practitioner is gone. The Dura'Kai regard this as the tradition's defining quality. Other practitioners, who are used to their power ending when they stop, find it unsettling.

System Integration

Elemental Earth as an Odd Talent

Elemental Earth functions as an Odd Talent per Core Part 4. All standard Odd Talent rules apply:

The roll is: Governing Attribute + Elemental Earth (+ Focus if applicable)
Elemental Earth dice are purchased from the Talent budget at character creation, or improved through Advancement at the standard Odd Talent cost (Governing Attribute × 2 XP for a new Tradition at 1D; current value × 2 XP to improve)
Maximum Tradition rating: 5D. Maximum Focus rating: 3D
A character may use any of the three Expressions with the same Odd Talent pool. Expressions are not separate Talents; they are applications of one Talent

Governing Attribute

The governing Attribute is chosen at character creation and is permanent.

Expression	Common Choice	Reasoning
Shape	Body (default) or Wit	Body for direct physical displacement; Wit for precise architectural reshaping and engineering work
Hold	Body	Body for the physical endurance and stabilization expression; the Stoneholder archetype
Read	Wit	Wit for the geological knowledge and sensory interpretation aspect; craftworkers and surveyors

A practitioner who chooses Wit as their governing Attribute applies it to all three Expressions; they cannot switch attributes per Expression. The governing Attribute choice shapes which Expression feels most natural, not which ones are available.

Most Dura'Kai who develop earth practice choose Body. The Wit-governed tradition produces a different character: less the immovable defender and more the one who reads the structure, finds the weakness, and understands what will happen before it happens.

Access

Dura'Kai Lineage: Elemental Earth is granted at 1D at character creation through the Dura'Kai Lineage Power Access perk. Choose governing Attribute at that time.

Stoneholder Profession: The Stoneholder's Progression Track does not require elemental power access, its abilities are martial applications of Dura'Kai physical presence, not tradition rolls. However, Stoneholders who are also Dura'Kai (the standard case) may additionally develop Elemental Earth through their Lineage perk. If the GM wishes to represent a Stoneholder whose elemental development is central to their identity, the tradition integrates naturally with the Ground Claim and Lodge Wall abilities, they are the same principle expressed at different scales.

Windcaster / Scholar Professions: These universal Mystic professions grant access to any Resonance or Form tradition available in the Genre Catalog. A Windcaster or Scholar who selects Elemental Earth as their tradition gains access at 1D through their Profession Power Access. The Windcaster application produces something notable: earth and motion are not intuitive partners, and a practitioner who moves with earth is working against the tradition's natural character. Some do. It is unusual enough to define a character.

Independent Study: Any character may pursue Elemental Earth access outside of Lineage or Profession, but it requires a Dura'Kai mentor with at least 3D in Elemental Earth, sustained work with stone over a minimum of one month (physical labor alongside the practice, not study alone, the tradition does not transmit through text), and costs Governing Attribute × 2 XP for the initial 1D. Independent practitioners receive no extension of Tremor Sense; that is a biological sense, and the tradition's knowledge dimension is perceived differently in those who lack it.

Duplicate Access: If a character is Dura'Kai and selects a Profession granting Earth access, they begin with 2D in Elemental Earth at no additional cost (per Core Part 9.3 duplicate access rule).

Mechanics Summary

Feature	Detail
Tradition Category	Form, material transformation and pattern-imposition on existing matter
Default Attribute	Body (most common; Stoneholder archetype); Wit (crafters, engineers, scholars)
Action Type	Primary Action (most effects); Free Action (Anchor, Structural Assessment); Extended work (Reshape, Stone Memory, Locate Material)
Signature Feel	Permanent and deliberate; effects often persist after the practitioner stops acting, stone holds what was asked of it
Power Access	Dura'Kai Lineage; Stoneholder Profession (through Lineage); Windcaster or Scholar (universal Mystics); Independent Study
Signature Focus	The Lodgestone
Expressions	Shape (material manipulation/terrain), Hold (stability/fortification/endurance), Read (geological knowledge/sensing)

Threshold Scale for Elemental Earth:

Threshold	Scale of Effect
1	Minor; affects a small object, immediate vicinity, or provides basic information; no ongoing maintenance required
2	Standard; single target or Close range area; a section of wall, a door, one creature's footing, a surface read
3	Significant; multiple targets or notable terrain alteration; full wall section, sustained entrapment, deep structural read
4	Major; building-scale structural work; reinforcement of a chamber or load-bearing element; extensive geological intervention
5+	Profound; landscape-scale alteration; effects that function as permanent geological events

Excess Successes: On any non-attack roll that exceeds the Threshold, each excess success may be allocated to one of: extend duration by one step; increase range by one Band; increase the number of affected targets by one; enhance a secondary effect as noted under the specific application.

Expression: Shape

The stone made into something new.

Shape is the direct material expression of Elemental Earth. It governs the movement, fracturing, rising, and restructuring of stone, soil, and natural mineral matter. Where Force traditions project energy across space, Shape works only with what is already present, the practitioner cannot create stone from nothing, cannot summon earth from a featureless surface, cannot work in loose sand or open water. They work with what the earth has already provided.

The trade-off is permanence. A fire bolt that misses leaves no trace. A wall a Shape practitioner raises from the floor does not vanish when the encounter ends. Ground broken underfoot stays broken. Stone sealed in stone requires physical labor to undo. Shape's effects outlast the encounter, the scene, and sometimes the session, and Dura'Kai practitioners consider this an obvious virtue.

Most Shape applications require stone flooring, stone ground, hardpacked earth, or the equivalent. A battlefield of packed soil works. A ship's deck does not. A stone castle floor works. A wooden barn floor does not. When in doubt, if the ground can support a building, it can support Shape.

Shape, Challenge Applications

Ground Break (Primary Action, Threshold 2, Close range) The practitioner causes the earth beneath a target to fracture, ripple, or heave upward. The target must make a Speed Save vs Threshold 2 or fall Prone. If the target is adjacent to a raised obstacle or steep surface when they fall, they additionally take 1 Bludgeoning damage from the impact. This is a ground-contact effect, creatures not in contact with stone or hardpacked earth (flying targets, creatures standing on wooden platforms) are immune.

Scaling: Excess successes may extend the effect to one additional adjacent target (1 excess) or apply Hindered in addition to Prone (2 excess, the ground did not simply move, it hit back).

Stone Rise (Primary Action, Threshold 2–3) The practitioner commands stone or hardpacked earth to rise from the ground as a barrier or obstacle. At Threshold 2: a waist-high obstruction at one point within Near range, counts as partial cover, provides +1 Defense to creatures behind it who are crouching or stationary. At Threshold 3: a full-height wall section (Close range width, floor to ceiling height or 10 feet in open terrain) that blocks line of sight and passage entirely.

Requirements: the practitioner must be standing on or adjacent to the appropriate ground material. The wall is permanent once raised; it does not retract when the practitioner leaves. Destroying a Stone Rise wall requires sustained physical effort (treat as a heavy structural element: minimum 15 damage to breach, GM determines appropriate tools). The practitioner cannot move a raised wall after creation; they can only raise new ones.

Scaling: Excess successes above the Threshold may extend wall width by one range Band per 2 excess successes, or increase the wall's effective damage threshold by 5 (1 excess).

Reshape (Extended work, Threshold varies) Working with stone, mineral, or dense earth material in physical contact, the practitioner imposes a new form on it through elemental direction rather than conventional tools. The work still takes time and physical engagement, the tradition guides, it does not simply produce finished objects from raw stone on a roll.

Threshold 1, Simple adjustment: a rough edge smoothed, a gap filled, a basic shape formed (a bowl, a handle, a flat surface). One minute's work.

Threshold 2, Functional construction: a door sealed in its frame, stone fused to stone (requires physical demolition to undo); a tool shaped with precision that would take a skilled mason hours; a staircase or ramp formed from a raw stone face. Ten minutes' work.

Threshold 3, Precise engineering: a complex stone component, a carved key, a structural fitting, a mechanical component that must interlock with another, shaped with tolerances that approach a master craftworker's. One hour's work. With a Lodgestone, this work produces quality equivalent to Dura'Kai lodge-craft.

Threshold 4, Structural intervention: repair or construct a load-bearing architectural element (a column, a bridge section, a vaulted support). Four hours' work under safe conditions.

Reshape is out-of-combat work. The practitioner cannot Reshape under active threat without severe Disadvantage conditions (GM discretion on whether this is permitted at all during combat).

Scaling: Excess successes on any Reshape application reduce work time by half (1 excess), improve material quality (2 excess, +1D on relevant crafting or structural assessment rolls using the formed material), or increase precision (allows the formed object to serve in a specialized application the base roll would have produced only a functional approximation of).

Entomb (Primary Action, Threshold 3, Close range) The practitioner commands stone or hardpacked earth beneath a target to seize and hold them. The target must make a Body Save vs Threshold 3 or become Restrained (per core rules, the earth is physically holding them; Athletics or Acrobatics Threshold 3 may free them). While Restrained by Entomb, the target also suffers −1D to all roll pools as their lower body is partially encased and movement is further impeded beyond what standard Restrained applies.

Flying targets and targets not in contact with stone or hardpacked earth are immune. This effect requires the same material constraints as Stone Rise, loose soil or sand does not coalesce with sufficient force to restrain.

The Entomb effect is permanent until the target breaks free or is physically excavated by allies (an adjacent ally spending a Primary Action and succeeding on an Athletics or appropriate craft roll vs Threshold 2 reduces the encasement enough to free the target on the following Turn).

Scaling: Each excess success above 3 increases the Body Save Threshold to escape by 1 (making the encasement tighter). 2 excess successes may extend the effect to a second adjacent target.

Backlash: - Minor: Ground fractures under the practitioner; they stumble; fall Prone. No damage. - Moderate: Stone erupts back. Practitioner takes 3 Bludgeoning damage and becomes Hindered until end of their next Turn. If Entomb was attempted, the stone forms partially around the practitioner's hands instead, −1D to all roll pools until Short Rest as movement is restricted. - Severe: Geological surge, a significant tremor erupts in Close range. All creatures in Close range including the practitioner must make a Speed Save vs Threshold 2 or fall Prone and take 2 Bludgeoning damage. The practitioner additionally gains Staggered (until next Long Rest). Stone Infusion's bludgeoning reduction does not apply to this damage (see Internal vs. External, above).

Expression: Hold

The stone made into something unmovable.

Hold is the endurance face of Elemental Earth. It does not move stone or read it; it asks stone to stay. Reinforce the wall. Protect the person. Lock the ground. Refuse to yield. The Stoneholder's lodge culture is in this Expression entirely: the earth does not pursue, it holds; and a practitioner who has developed Hold is extending that principle into elemental power.

Hold applications are almost universally defensive. They protect allies, fortify positions, and deny terrain. Against high-mobility opponents, a Hold practitioner is consistently useful. In an open-field engagement where mobility is the advantage, Hold provides less. This is consistent with who practices it: Dura'Kai who chose the warrior path did not choose it because they wanted to chase.

Unlike Shape, Hold effects on the practitioner themselves (Anchor) and on allies (Stone Skin) work through contact, the practitioner must touch the target for Stone Skin, and Anchor is self-only. Ground Hold operates at range. Reinforce requires physical contact with the structure being strengthened.

Hold, Challenge Applications

Reinforce (Primary Action or Extended work, Threshold 2–4) The practitioner infuses stone, hardpacked earth, or adjacent structural material with elemental stability, significantly increasing its resistance to damage. The practitioner must be in contact with the structure being reinforced.

Threshold 2, Section reinforcement: a door, gate, or one section of wall. Halves all incoming damage to that section (minimum 1) for the remainder of the scene. Duration ends when the scene ends or when the section is physically destroyed; it does not require ongoing action.

Threshold 3, Room-scale reinforcement: the load-bearing elements of a room or chamber. The area cannot be structurally collapsed by combat-scale forces during this scene. Creatures trying to bring down the ceiling or walls find them unexpectedly resistant; GM determines when extraordinary force might overcome this (siege equipment, other power traditions, extended effort).

Threshold 4, Structure-scale reinforcement: a complete building's load-bearing structure, reinforced for one day. Prevents structural failure from combat-scale damage for twenty-four hours. Extended work: requires one hour of physical contact with the structure's foundations during which the practitioner cannot take other actions.

Scaling: Excess successes at Threshold 2 extend duration to the next Long Rest (1 excess) or increase the damage reduction to two-thirds (2 excess, minimum 1). Excess at Threshold 3 extend duration by one day per excess.

Stone Skin (Primary Action, Threshold 2, Touch range) The practitioner wraps a willing target in a thin shell of responsive stone, material that flexes with the body's movement without impeding it, feeling like cool weight rather than armor. Until the shell absorbs damage from one incoming attack, the target's Defense increases by +2. After the shell absorbs that attack (the incoming damage is negated; the shell takes it), it fractures and the benefit ends.

The stone shell must be applied while the target is stationary or moving slowly. It cannot be applied in the same action as movement.

Scaling: 2 excess successes above Threshold allow the shell to absorb two hits rather than one before fracturing. 1 excess success extends the +2 Defense to the practitioner's next adjacent ally as well (they receive a smaller shell, +1 Defense, absorbs one hit).

Anchor (Free Action, Threshold 1) The practitioner plants their elemental connection into the ground they are standing on. Until the start of their next Turn, they cannot be moved against their will, knocked Prone, or repositioned by any external force, forced movement fails, Push effects fail, grapple-drag attempts fail. The Anchor does not prevent the practitioner from moving themselves; it prevents others from moving them.

This is a voluntary effect, the practitioner may end it at any time before it expires by simply choosing to move normally.

This is the Stoneholder's defining experience in concentrated form. The ground knows where they stand.

Scaling: 1 excess success extends the duration by one Turn. 2 excess successes also allow one adjacent ally to benefit from reduced movement interference (they cannot be knocked Prone while adjacent to the Anchored practitioner; this ends when the Anchor ends or when the ally moves away from Close range).

Ground Hold (Primary Action, Threshold 2, Near range) The practitioner commands the earth beneath a target's feet to shift, grip, and resist movement. The target must make a Speed Save vs Threshold 2 or become Slowed (per catalog condition, movement reduced to Close range, −1D to Speed pools; Speed Save Threshold 2 at start of each Turn to end). This is a ground-contact effect; targets not in contact with stone or hardpacked earth are immune.

If Ground Hold is applied to a target that is already Restrained (from Entomb or another source), both conditions are active simultaneously, the target cannot move and suffers both penalties.

Scaling: Excess successes above 2 increase the Speed Save Threshold to end Slowed by 1 per excess (making it harder to shake free). 2 excess successes extend the ground's grip enough to apply Restrained directly instead of Slowed, if the practitioner chooses, the same material, gripping higher and tighter.

Backlash: - Minor: The stability inverts, the practitioner's own footing becomes unreliable. −1D to Body Save until end of encounter. Anchor cannot be used again until after their next Short Rest (the elemental connection to the ground is frayed). - Moderate: Stone rigidity seizes part of the practitioner's body as the elemental energy misroutes. The practitioner becomes Hindered until Short Rest as their muscles lock briefly with stone-quality stiffness. Additionally takes 2 Bludgeoning damage (internal; Stone Infusion does not apply). - Severe: The earth holds the practitioner. They become Slowed (Speed condition, Speed Save Threshold 2 at start of each Turn to end) as stone forms around their feet and lower legs. Additionally takes 4 Bludgeoning damage (internal; Stone Infusion does not apply). Staggered until next Long Rest.

Expression: Read

The stone made into something that speaks.

Read is the knowledge face of Elemental Earth. It governs what the practitioner can perceive, extract, and understand through their elemental connection to the ground, the extension of the Dura'Kai's biological Tremor Sense into deliberate, skilled practice. Where Tremor Sense provides passive vibration detection, Read is active inquiry: pressing into the stone, asking what it knows, and having the geological expertise to interpret the answer.

Non-Dura'Kai practitioners who develop Read do not possess Tremor Sense as a biological sense. They experience Read's results differently, as an elemental intuition, a kind of geological knowing that arrives without a clear sensory channel. They receive the same information; it simply does not feel like their body reading it.

Read applications are almost entirely out-of-combat or reconnaissance functions. Structural Assessment is the exception; it functions quickly enough to be useful in immediate circumstances. Stone Memory and Locate Material require extended contact and are deliberate undertakings. Deep Survey scales with time and effort.

Dura'Kai lodge-keepers and Stoneholders who develop Read produce the most thorough territorial knowledge available to any faction in Andrus. A practitioner who has spent years Reading their home ground knows it with a depth no map can replicate.

Read, Challenge Applications

Deep Survey (Minor Action to initiate, Threshold varies) The practitioner extends their elemental sense through the ground from the point of contact, reading the geological signature of the area. Requires physical contact with stone or hardpacked earth and sustained concentration for the noted duration; interruptions require restarting the Survey.

Threshold 1, Near range survey (1 minute): detect hollow spaces, underground water flow, root systems, and burrowing creatures within Near range of the contact point. The information is directional and approximate, presence, size, and movement, not specific detail.

Threshold 2, Near range structural read (1 minute): determine the structural integrity of a building, cave system, or tunnel network within Near range. Identify which load-bearing elements are compromised, where faults exist, and whether a structure is stable under additional stress.

Threshold 3, Far range presence survey (5 minutes): detect creatures and objects underground or behind stone walls within Far range of the contact point. Positions are approximate (Close range precision); creature type is determinable by size and movement signature.

For Dura'Kai practitioners: Deep Survey extends and sharpens their passive Tremor Sense, the information arrives through the same bodily channel at greater range and precision. For non-Dura'Kai practitioners: the same information arrives as elemental knowledge rather than physical sensation; functionally identical, phenomenologically different.

Scaling: Excess successes above the Threshold may extend range by one Band (1 excess each) or increase the precision of detected creatures' positions to Touch range accuracy (2 excess; you know approximately where each creature is standing).

Stone Memory (Extended work, Primary Action to initiate, Threshold 2–3) The practitioner presses both hands to a stone surface or dense earth and reads the recent history recorded in it, the vibrations and weight-signatures of events that have passed over or through this material, still present as traces in the stone's structure.

Threshold 2, Past week: significant physical events that left traces (a battle, heavy and sustained foot traffic, a structural impact, the installation or removal of a heavy object, an explosion or collapse). The practitioner experiences these as impressionistic echoes: pressure, direction, scale, approximate timing. They cannot read identity, speech, or intent, only physical events.

Threshold 3, Past season: significant events over the prior three months. More distant events are less precise than recent ones; the practitioner receives the strongest events clearly and lesser ones as fainter impressions.

Stone Memory requires one full minute of uninterrupted physical contact with the surface being read. It is not a combat application. The practitioner cannot move or take other actions during the reading.

Scaling: Excess successes above the Threshold allow the practitioner to focus on one specific time period within range and retrieve it with greater clarity (1 excess; a specific event, rather than the general record of events). 2 excess successes extend the readable period by one step (week to season; season to year).

Structural Assessment (Free Action, Threshold 1) When physically in contact with or adjacent to a constructed stone or earth structure, the practitioner may assess its structural integrity as a Free Action. They learn immediately: whether the structure is load-bearing, whether it has been modified (and approximately when), whether it can withstand combat-scale damage without collapse risk, and where its single weakest point is. This is not supernatural knowledge; it is geological expertise applied in an instant. The practitioner has learned to read what stone tells anyone willing to listen.

For non-Dura'Kai practitioners: Structural Assessment requires one minute of physical contact rather than being a Free Action, the same knowledge, more slowly extracted.

Locate Material (Extended work, Threshold 1–3) The practitioner presses their hand to ground and searches with their elemental sense for a specific mineral, ore, or material within the earth at range. The search takes time proportional to Threshold; the practitioner cannot move or take other actions during the search.

Threshold 1 (1 minute): common materials, water, iron ore, clay deposits, common stone types, within Near range. Detects presence and approximate direction.

Threshold 2 (5 minutes): specific ore or stone types, marble, obsidian, true-stone, mineral deposits of particular value, within Far range. Detects presence, direction, and estimated volume.

Threshold 3 (10 minutes): rare or unusual materials, gem-grade stone, specific elemental mineral deposits, non-natural material buried in earth (metal objects, manufactured items, other substances inconsistent with the surrounding geology), within Far range. A Dura'Kai practitioner searching for something in their home territory reduces all Thresholds by 1 for this application (they know this ground).

Scaling: Excess successes above Threshold extend the detection range by one Band (1 excess) or allow the practitioner to receive a more precise location of a detected material (2 excess; they know which direction and at what approximate depth, rather than just which direction).

Backlash: - Minor: Geological feedback overwhelms the signal. Stone Memory or Deep Survey active at the time delivers contradictory or useless information, the read fails to produce actionable results and cannot be retried until end of next Turn. Practitioner cannot benefit from Read Expression until then. - Moderate: The stone speaks back at volume. Practitioner becomes Shaken until end of their next Turn and takes 2 Bludgeoning damage (internal; Stone Infusion does not apply) as geological time rushes through them with unexpected force. A Dura'Kai practitioner additionally experiences sensory disruption to their passive Tremor Sense; it provides only confused information until Short Rest. - Severe: Deep Read severs. The practitioner's elemental sense disconnects entirely; they cannot use Read Expression for the remainder of the scene. For Dura'Kai practitioners, passive Tremor Sense also suppresses for the scene's duration (they lose baseline vibration detection). Practitioner additionally becomes Shaken until next Short Rest and takes 3 Bludgeoning damage (internal; Stone Infusion does not apply).

The Lodgestone (Elemental Earth Focus)

A piece of stone taken from the practitioner's home ground and kept in constant contact with the body, typically worn at the belt, held in a belt pouch against the hip, or carried in a deep pocket. Old lodgestones are passed through families for generations; a family home may have three or four stones from ancestors who held this ground before any living lodge member was born. A new lodgestone is cut from the lodge's foundation rock in a formal ceremony witnessed by the Stoneholder, the stone is identified, named, and formally separated from its ground with the understanding that it carries that ground's record wherever it goes. The Stoneholder of any lodge can identify a lodgestone from their ground on contact.

Lodgestone | Focus | Elemental Earth
Mechanical Effect:
  +2D to all Read Expression rolls (the lodgestone's connection
  to known ground deepens all stone-sense, the practitioner
  reads new stone through the lens of ground they already know,
  and that familiarity translates).

  Shape Expression: once per scene, one Shape Expression use
  does not trigger Elemental Strain, the practitioner remains
  Clear after this use. The stone from home ground stabilizes
  the first act of shaping in any new terrain.

  Tremor Sense: while the Lodgestone is held or worn against
  the body, the passive Tremor Sense range extends to Far
  (from its standard Near range). This applies only to
  Dura'Kai practitioners who have the biological sense; non-
  Dura'Kai practitioners do not benefit from this extension
  (they have no baseline sense to extend).

Acquisition: A Dura'Kai lodgestone is cut from the
  practitioner's home lodge's foundation rock in the ceremony
  described above. A practitioner whose lodge no longer exists,
  or who has been exiled, cannot simply acquire a new one;
  they must locate surviving material from the lodge's original
  ground (which may require significant effort or travel) or
  begin the process of bonding to a new ground entirely. New
  ground bonding takes one month of deliberate residence and
  practice; the resulting lodgestone carries a real connection
  but no memory of original ground.

  Non-Dura'Kai practitioners bond a stone over months of
  sustained contact and elemental practice; there is no
  ceremony, only time (minimum one month of consistent daily
  practice while carrying the stone). A non-Dura'Kai lodgestone
  provides +1D to Read Expression rather than +2D and does not
  extend Tremor Sense (absent for the practitioner biologically).
  The Shape Expression Strain-free use functions identically.

Improvised Focuses: Other earth-associated objects may serve as an improvised Earth Focus at GM discretion, a tool that has worked stone for years, a piece of mineral with personal significance, a mason's hammer long-used in Dura'Kai work. These provide +1D to one Expression (chosen when improvised) rather than +2D, and lack the Lodgestone's secondary effects.

Access and Cross-Lineage Notes

Other Kin practitioners: The four Kin traditions are distinct expressions of four distinct elemental legacies. A Zephari practitioner has no natural affinity for earth; a Mirelen practitioner has no natural affinity for earth. Each Kin lineage's tradition is its own, not a variant of a generic elemental system. A Kin practitioner from another lineage can learn Elemental Earth through Independent Study, but they are adopting a foreign tradition; they will not have Tremor Sense, will experience Read's information differently, and will relate to the tradition's pace and permanence with whatever patience their own culture has prepared them for. Zephari practitioners who pick up Earth independent study are uncommon and tend to find it a productive study in contrast: motion and stillness, studied in parallel.

Anima practitioners: Anima lineages do not carry lineage Power Access to any tradition. Anima who develop Elemental Earth practice through Independent Study typically do so through long professional or habitual proximity to Dura'Kai lodge communities, Yusk practitioners in particular have been noted, given their own geological time-sense and the Yusk's documented intellectual relationship with the Dura'Kai. The Voren-Dura'Kai partnership occasionally produces Voren practitioners who pursue Earth study, though it is not common.

Human practitioners: Kyne Daas and Ustara carry their own Form-category traditions. Ekhari's and Sereindal's traditions are Force and none (respectively). A Sereindal practitioner who wants Earth access must pursue Independent Study, and then bring an earth tradition aboard ships, which is an unusual cultural position for a maritime people to be in.

Example Rolls

Gorak is a Dura'Kai Stoneholder who has developed his elemental access: Body 4D, Elemental Earth 2D. He carries a Lodgestone (Shape Expression: one Strain-free use per scene). He is holding a corridor against three enemies attempting to push through.

Situation: Gorak wants to raise a wall across part of the corridor, funneling enemies into single-file approach. The floor is stone.

Roll 1, Stone Rise (Shape, Threshold 2): Pool: Body 4D + Elemental Earth 2D = 6D. Status: Clear, and this is his Lodgestone's Strain-free use, so after the roll he remains Clear. Result: 4 successes. Exceeds Threshold by 2. A full-height wall section rises across most of the corridor (excess successes held in reserve). Gorak allocates one excess to extend the wall's effective damage threshold by 5. Status after: Clear (Lodgestone used for the scene, next Shape use will Strain normally).

Situation: An enemy who got around the wall is at Close range. Gorak wants to lock them down.

Roll 2, Ground Hold (Hold, Threshold 2): Pool: 6D at Clear (Hold, not Shape, his Lodgestone Strain-free use was spent on Shape specifically). Result: 3 successes. Exceeds Threshold by 1. The target must make Speed Save vs Threshold 2 or become Slowed. Gorak allocates his excess success to raise the Save's escape Threshold by 1, the target will need to roll Speed Save vs Threshold 3 each Turn to end Slowed. Status after: Strained.

Gorak uses his next Turn to attempt Strain recovery ("Gorak presses one heel into the stone and does not move. After a moment he looks down, satisfied with where he is."): rolls Body 4D + Resolve vs Threshold 3. Result: 3 successes. Strain clears.

Selveth is a Dura'Kai Scholar (Wit 3D, Elemental Earth 2D, Read Focus 2D, Lodgestone +2D to Read). Her party has entered a ruin of uncertain age and wants to know if the floor above them is safe to traverse. They have ten minutes before their contact arrives.

Situation: Selveth wants to assess the structure's integrity and determine if the second floor will hold under several armed people's weight.

Roll 1, Structural Assessment (Read, Free Action, Threshold 1): Pool: Wit 3D + Elemental Earth 2D + Read Focus 2D + Lodgestone +2D = 9D. Free Action. Status: Clear. She touches the nearest load-bearing column. Result: 5 successes. She immediately knows: the primary supports are sound, but the secondary spans above the northeast section are compromised, probably a past flood in the lower level saturating the stone. The floor will support normal movement; do not gather more than two people in the northeast corner simultaneously. Status after: Strained.

Situation: The party wants to know if anyone has used this ruin recently, within the past week.

Roll 2, Stone Memory (Read, Extended work, Threshold 2): Pool: 9D at Disadvantage (only 6s count). Status: Strained. One minute of contact with the floor at the entrance. Result: 2 successes. Meets Threshold. Selveth reads: the passage of at least four individuals within the past three days, traveling inward, their weight signatures suggest two larger and two smaller persons, moving cautiously (no running signatures, deliberate foot placement). Someone moved something heavy. The impression ends; she cannot follow it farther from this contact point.

Selveth attempts Strain recovery: Primary Action, roll Wit 3D + Resolve vs Threshold 3. Result: 4 successes. Strain clears.